Am­bi­ka Ja­gas­sars­ingh

am­bi­ka.ja­gas­sars­ingh@guardian.co.tt

As the Chi­nese com­mu­ni­ty com­mem­o­rat­ed the oc­ca­sion of their New Year, Trinidad and To­ba­go cel­e­brat­ed the ex­changes be­tween both com­mu­ni­ties and the ties that have been forged.

Speak­ing at the Chi­nese Spring Fes­ti­val Tem­ple Fair at An­chor­age, Ch­aguara­mas on Sun­day, Min­is­ter of For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs Dr Amery Browne, said that the re­la­tion­ship that has been formed be­tween coun­tries con­tin­ues to be for­mi­da­ble both eco­nom­i­cal­ly and cul­tur­al­ly.

“Trinidad and To­ba­go’s en­gage­ment in the Belt and Road Ini­tia­tive, the Phoenix Park In­dus­tri­al Es­tate project, the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre to be con­struct­ed, our co­op­er­a­tion in the mul­ti­lat­er­al are­na, and the ro­bust mu­tu­al­ly ben­e­fi­cial trade ac­tiv­i­ty be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go are among the many demon­stra­ble and tan­gi­ble ben­e­fits Trinidad and To­ba­go and Chi­na de­rive from our friend­ship and our part­ner­ship.”

He added that the coun­tries’ fu­ture to­geth­er “has a sound foun­da­tion for de­vel­op­ment and growth in a myr­i­ad of spheres, with in­nu­mer­able fields to be ex­plored.”

Dr Browne com­mend­ed the Chi­nese Em­bassy’s ef­forts to sus­tain its cul­ture with­in T&T through their food, cul­ture, and even Port of Spain’s Chi­na Town.

He em­pha­sized “the pow­er of cul­ture as a uni­fy­ing force be­tween coun­tries,” once again ap­plaud­ing the Chi­nese for their in­vest­ment in­to the bi­lat­er­al re­la­tions, as well as their in­vest­ment in main­tain­ing the re­la­tion­ship be­tween Chi­na and Chi­nese peo­ple liv­ing in T&T.

Chi­nese am­bas­sador to T&T Fang Qiu ex­pressed his sat­is­fac­tion with the man­ner in which his peo­ple were able to in­te­grate in­to T&T’s so­ci­ety over the years, mak­ing a name for them­selves.

“I feel pro­found­ly proud of the lo­cal Chi­nese who have been liv­ing in har­mo­ny with peo­ple of oth­er ori­gins and mak­ing con­tri­bu­tions to the eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment and cul­tur­al di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go through gen­er­a­tions of hard work.”

He al­so praised the sym­bi­ot­ic re­la­tion­ship Chi­na and T&T had de­vel­oped in com­bat­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, where T&T was amongst the first set of coun­tries to of­fer help when it was nec­es­sary.

Con­sid­er­ing this be­ing the Chi­nese Year of the Rab­bit, which rep­re­sents live­li­ness, aus­pi­cious­ness and vi­tal­i­ty, Qiu hoped the bonds be­tween Chi­na and T&T “take a gi­ant leap for­ward like a rab­bit.”

Sev­er­al oth­er min­is­ters in­clud­ing Min­is­ter of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries and Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter, Stu­art Young, and Min­is­ter of Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment, Pene­lope Beck­les-Robin­son were present at the event.

Guests were en­ter­tained by sev­er­al ac­tiv­i­ties in­clud­ing drag­on boat rac­ing, drag­on dances, and Chi­nese mar­tial art per­for­mances to name a few.